That is a picture of a wasp species I had never seen before this summer. Our daughter told us about one in her back yard in Bertram, and a few days later, we saw our first one here at the Boggy Thicket.
They are HUGE!
If the red wasps I wrote about the other day were fighter jets, these monsters would be Boeing 747s. Their bodies are 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, and they have a wingspan of about 3 inches.
They are known as Cicada Killer wasps - Sphecius speciosus - so named because Cicadas are the primary source of food for their offspring, They attack locusts and carry the paralyzed bug to their nests where they deposit an egg then seal them up to provide the larva with food. The larva hatch in late June or early July - just in time to start the cycle again.
If there is any good news about these critters, it's that they are almost never aggressive toward humans. The female's sting is said to be extremely mild, and the males can't sting at all.
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